Clergy critique Texas social studies curriculum

Texas clergy held a rally in Austin this morning to protest the State Board of Education’s contentious curriculum guidelines.

Members of the Texas Faith Network, a group of 600 “mainstream and progressive clergy,” are concerned about First Amendment rights after the board voted in March to not teach the notions of religious freedom and the separation of church and state in public schools.

Two dozen religious leaders from across faiths held a press conference to criticize the proposed social studies standards, which are set to be finalized during a board meeting next week.

“In a country that is home to many faiths, it’s important for our students to understand that government must not pick and choose which religions to favor,” said Rabbi Robert Haas, of Congregation Emanu El in Houston, in a press release. “That basic constitutional protection for the free exercise of religion has allowed faith to thrive in America for more than two centuries while other nations around the world have been plagued by religious conflict.”

Jonathan Saenz, an Attorney & Director of Legislative Affairs, Liberty Institute, said… “the Founding Fathers would have never adopted such a strict ‘wall of separation’ view, pushed by the ACLU and some clergy, and the effort to teach students this inaccurate version of history will be rightly struck down again by the SBOE.”

I recently learned why it is important for conservatives to argue that the U.S. is a Christian nation–there is a fear that if we do not claim an official religion that Islamists will take over? It is very much the same argument that if we do not declare English the official language, that Spanish will take over.

There is great paranoia among conservatives and it is being served up by talk radio mushminds like Beck and Limbaugh. This paranoia is reminiscient of the U.S.S.R. where religion was banned.

Saenz ignores Thomas Jefferson as a Founding Father, and he ignores the clear edict in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Religious freedom from the government telling you what to believe is a basic American right.

It amazes me how a creepy minority can be pushing this junk on school children. It is un-American!

Jonathan Saenz, an Attorney & Director of Legislative Affairs, Liberty Institute, said… “the Founding Fathers would have never adopted such a strict ‘wall of separation’ view…”

Uh, these Founding Fathers?

“The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.” George Washington

“… I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.” James Madison

“When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, ’tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.” Benjamin Franklin

“I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.” Thomas Jefferson

“Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure & perpetuate it, needs them not.” John Adams

During the House of Representatives’ debate on the language of the religion clauses, members specifically rejected a version reading, “Congress shall make no law establishing any particular denomination in preference to another…” The Senate likewise rejected three versions of the First Amendment that would have permitted non-preferential support for religion.

It should also be noted that the Constitution specifically states “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust…”

Mark this one on the calendar! This is one of the rare times I have sided with a bunch of clergymen. But they are right, and they should be preaching this from the steeple lofts and rooftops…these fundamentalist twiley-eyed born-again miscreants will burn you all at the stake given the chance.

Mainstream, non-psychotic religious types had better fear the fundamentalists more than their satans.

Christian Fundamentalists and Evangelicals do what the Supreme Court’s right-wing allows them to by the adoption of weak animating principles for the Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court is not a court, it is a political body.

The only reason these people feel the need to use the government to force their religion on us is that they have no faith in their religion to begin with. What weak souls they are, how little faith they have.

The SBOE is led by a small group of bigoted zealot nutcases who deserve nothing more than ridicule. They are extermist morons, and their supporters tend towards the spoon-fed halfwits that clamor after Pat Robertson. And those who think that “separataion of church and state” is not found in the Constitution mistake the literate for the conceptual (and mistake wishful thinking for reality). What else isn’t in the Constitution? Well, “Jesus,” “God,” “Christian,” “Pat Robertson,” “Conservative….” Get over yourselves – repeating, ad infintum, some Rush Limbaugh throaway line doesn’t mean that you have anything approaching the smarts required to make you a Constitutional scholar. Sheez.

have you noticed the direct corralation between higher education and unbelief in religion not necessary theology but religion and the fundamental dogma inherent in it, further more I believe it amusing how most of these proponents of religious teachings seem to be dull witted and quite honestly unable to think independently. For example they seem quite eager to believe any non- sense from Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh spout off about !!! Not to sound elitist or anything but really I mean Limbaugh is a complete moron that never even finished college and Beck believe that John Smith fairy tale, I mean really these people need pick up a magazine like NewScientist or watch Nova or listen to the BBC. Having said all that I am very happy to see so many poeple posting here that have opened thier eyes to the illusion that is religion. Education is the light opon the world

@scot: the separation of church and state IS NOT FOUND in the US Constitution

The word “trinity” is likewise not found in the Bible but that hasn’t stopped some people from believing in that doctrine. Not only is the principle (or doctrine) of church-state separation very clear in the First Amendment, it’s also found throughout the writings of the authors of the First Amendment. You cannot dismiss the First Amendment in the full context of Madison’s and Jefferson’s writings about church-state relations. While they commended religion for its civic virtues, they were adamant that church and state be and remain separate.